Every time I hear David Greene on NPR's Morning Edition, I wonder how he got the job.
Not because he isn't professional. His
bio references stints as a Baltimore newspaper reporter, a White House correspondent and a foreign correspondent. His voice is clear and resonant and his inflection adjusts appropriately to the material.
It's his name, David Greene. In
NPR's pantheon of mellifluous monickers, a name like Greene, Brown or Smith sticks out like a bug on a rose bush.
The regular morning hosts, Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne, are much more typical, as are Michele (that's MEE-shell) Norris and Robert Siegal in the evening and Scott Simon and Rachel Martin on the weekend. Names with cadence, but these are only the beginning.
There's Neal Conan, Audie Cornish and Felix Contreras, Ira Flatow, Corey Flintoff and David Folkenflik, Marilyn Geewax and Neil Greenfieldboyce. Then they really start to roll off the tongue:
Mara Liasson, Karen Grigsby Bates, Barbara Bradley Hagerty. Mandalit del Barco, Soraya Sahaddi Nelson, Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. But there's more:
Neda Ulaby, Yuki Noguchi, Doualy Xaykaothao (dwa-LEE Sy-kow-tow). These aren't names, they're song titles.
As I said, David Greene is obviously a pro, so I don't mean to give him a bad name. He already has one. It's about as boring as
Mike Quinn.
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Reportedly the military wants to teach its highest ranking officers some ethics and I want to help, so I've drafted a short quiz.
True or False
You're a four-star general and you're sitting next to a five-star general. It is okay if you take one of his stars.
Multiple Choice
The forces you command have failed to gain their objective. You should --
- Blame your junior officers
- Blame poor intelligence
- Blame Congress for insufficient support
- All of the above
Essay question
In the length of a tweet, explain what you would do with a commanding officer who failed this ethics quiz.
Ask the general next to me. He's the one with the five stars.
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